ryan. the question is how will it play out when they make their vote. >> we are getting closer and closer to the top of the hour. only seconds away from some major projections. i want all of our viewers to get ready right now. here they come. let's start with all these states. we project winning states for mitt romney, will begin in kansas and the six electoral votes. we project kansas will be won by mitt romney, the republican presidential nominee. continuing, other states, louisiana in the south, eight electoral votes, mitt romney will carry louisiana, we project another win for mitt romney. nebraska, we project he will get three of the five electoral votes. they allocate by congressional district. right now we can project three, three going for mitt romney. in north dakota, another three electoral votes, all of them in north dakota going for mitt romney. let's go to south dakota right now. three electoral votes, we

project those three electoral votes will go for mitt romney in south dakota. look at this. texas, 38 electoral votes all going for mitt romney. he wins the state of texas. that was expected, a big win. from texas to wyoming, three electoral votes, they go for mitt romney as well. not only in wyoming but let's stay mississippi. six electoral votes, mitt romney carries mississippi as well. we cannot make projections right now in several states but we can make projections for president obama. in michigan, right now, michigan, look at this, it was supposed to be close but right now, the polls have just closed in michigan. we are already able to project that michigan, michigan, the home of the u.s. auto industry, will be in the president's column. 16 electoral votes. we know some republicans thought they had a shot there. doesn't look like they had much of a shot. 16 electoral votes going for michigan. new york state, another big prize. we anticipated new york state, always heavily democratic in

presidential contests, and the president picks up all 29 electoral votes in new york state and he does in new jersey as well. 14 electoral votes, we project all of them will go for the president of the united states. they had severe weather problems in new jersey and new york. we have made those projections. here's where we stand right now. at obama headquarters, by the way, they're cheering. i think we have live pictures. let's show our viewers what's going on over at obama headquarters as they watch what's going on. i guess they're pretty happy about michigan specifically. no projections right now in arizona, colorado, minnesota, new mexico and wisconsin. we need more information before we can make projections in those states. we're watching them. the road to 270, here's where it stands right now, just after 9:00 p.m. on the east coast. mitt romney is ahead. he has 152 electoral votes compared to 123 for the president of the united states. 270 are needed to win the white

house as you know. as we wait for more real votes to come in, we want to share with you what our exit polls are revealing. remember, these are estimates, based on interviews with a sampling of voters as they left select polling stations today and phone interviews with a sampling of people who voted early. >> here are the exit poll estimates we can share with you. in arizona, we have not made a projection but the estimate is from the exit poll, 52% for mitt romney, 46% for the president. look how close it is in colorado. based on our exit poll information right now, 48% to 48%, doesn't get any closer than that. colorado, a key, key battleground state. in minnesota, the president, 50%, mitt romney 47% in our exit poll estimate. remember, these are estimates only that reflect the votes of the people we interviewed at select polling places.

early voters we interviewed on the phone. it may not necessarily reflect the actual outcome in a particular state once we get the final vote. we have some more exit poll information. i want to share it with you. new mexico right now, 52% for the president, 43%, 43% for mitt romney in new mexico. we have not made a projection. wisconsin, the home state of paul ryan, the republican vice presidential nominee, the exit poll shows 52% for the president, 46% for mitt romney. both of these states, new mexico and wisconsin, went for president obama four years ago. anderson, these are a lot of states coming in, a lot of projected states, lot of states that we cannot yet make projections. >> we saw the crowd reaction at obama headquarters. let's check in with jessica yellin at obama headquarters and also candy crowley at romney headquarters. first, let's go to jessica. >> reporter: well, it's just gotten significantly noisier

here since we made that projection. you saw how the room went wild when we called michigan. that is a sign to people here and at obama's headquarters as well that the auto bailout no doubt made a huge difference for the president for voters in michigan and they no doubt will read it as a sign that he could score very well with voters in ohio. still of course too close to call. i can also tell you that they feel good about colorado. they think that they are on track with where they were headed into colorado based on their 2008 model, and that that is a state that they know as well as any state because they have the same person working that state who mapped out democratic senator michael bennett's campaign there. he waged a bitterly fought battle in 2010 against a tea party candidate and eked out a victory when most other democrats didn't, and that person also helped president obama plan his campaign strategy in colorado and they think they will win it tonight. >> we'll be watching that,

obviously, very closely. candy crowley is standing by at romney headquarters. reaction you're getting there? >> reporter: well, actually, what they're doing right now, what they have been doing over the course of this night, is they beam people in from other states. senator kelly ayotte from new hampshire right now, we're listening to governor mcdonnell from virginia. they all are kind of reporting upbeat numbers to this crowd saying hey, we're looking good here, they are encouraged. behind closed doors with the high turnout. but it would be wrong to say they aren't nervous because obviously, looking at these numbers closing in in florida, this is something that mitt romney, they would say is really very close to a must-win. virginia looking good for them. they feel strong in virginia. ohio, they continue to publicly be bullish about their chances in ohio. they say we're coming in with big numbers in the places where we have to have the big numbers. but of course, if president obama is doing that as well,

you're kind of back to the drawing board at square one. again, sort of high tension, i suspect, behind closed doors but publicly, they are still very bullish about their chances in all these swing states. >> looks like a lot of mobile devices people are on right now. candy, we have another projection i think wolf can make. >> thanks very much. really major projection we are going to make right now. cnn projects the republicans will maintain their majority in the house of representatives. we know nancy pelosi, the minority leader, thought they had a shot at winning 25 seats. they needed to get the democrats in the majority. that is not happening. the republicans will keep control of the house of representatives. john boehner, the speaker of the house, the speaker of the house will be very happy to hear that we are projecting the republicans will retain the majority in the house of representatives. i want to bring in our political director, mark preston, who has been reviewing all of the information as far as the house

of representatives is concerned. how can we make that projection? >> you know, 20 of the most competitive house races were in states where the polls closed at 8:00. we've seen enough raw data in these races to tell us now in fact that house republicans will hold the house or rather, house republicans will hold the house majority in those races. we see that the republicans are ahead in 12 of them. democrats are ahead in three of them. there's just not enough races out there, competitive races, for democrats to get to 25 seats that they need, the net seats they need to take back the house of representatives. wolf? >> thanks very much. john boehner will be the speaker of the house once again. so the house stays in republican control. we don't know about the senate yet. >> that's something we have been watching closely. >> when talking about the house, what is most fascinating is mark talked about the fact the democrats needed a net 25 to take majority. going into tonight and even tonight talking to my democratic sources, they think it's possible by the end of the night

when we get the west coast results that republicans will actually pick up seats. never mind the democrats not getting the majority. republicans may have a net gain of a few seats and what i'm also hearing from democratic sources, a lot of frustration with the president of the united states because you know how many robocalls he made for democratic candidates? one. one for tammy duckworth, the democratic candidate in suburban chicago. pretty easy to record a robocall. >> there have been critics who say when the president goes to a place, traditionally they will are congressional candidates onstage. the president doesn't do that. >> one senior source told me that california, for example, one of those orphan states, meaning there was no real presidential race there, but there were a lot of critical battleground house states, that he went to california and used it as an atm machine, meaning he raised a lot of money and never helped out some of the really, really critical races that could have helped democrats. >> is there going to be reverse coattails here? >> what i'm hearing, that's part of the problem, there might be

reverse coattails. the other thing a lot of democrats saw in polling in these key house races is when the president blew it in the first debate, the bottom dropped out in a lot of the races, some of the more red states, because republicans really got their enthusiasm up. >> if you look at it, it looks like the senate is going to stay democratic. at least one state has already flipped to the democrats. looks like one more may. i think we will be talking more about this over the course of the evening because if president obama wins this, it's clear that we spent $6 billion and we came back to a status quo election, nothing changed, but b, it's also clear with this close an election, democrats in the house not happy with him, republicans retaking the house, it's going to be tough to govern when this is over. we ought to talk more about that. >> we're where we left off. >> i want to talk about that coming up. first, let's check with wolf. >> let's take a look at the numbers. the actual numbers that are coming in in two key battleground states, florida and north carolina. look at this.

74% of the vote is now in in florida. the president has 50%, mitt romney has 49%. more than six million votes have been counted. 6,500,000, approximately. there is a difference between these two candidates of only 16,226 votes. 74% of the vote is in. it's close, close in the state of florida. 29 electoral votes at stake. look at this. it just changed as we were speaking. it's now 50% to 50%. 3,329,000 for barack obama. 3,330,000 for mitt romney. mitt romney, look at this, is slightly ahead by 1,288 votes. 1,288 votes in florida. wow. this is pretty close, as you can imagine. still got some votes to count. north carolina, looking how close it is in north carolina right now as well. 66% of the vote is in.

mitt romney slightly ahead in north carolina, 50% to 49%. mitt romney, three million votes have been counted. 47,000 vote advantage in north carolina. and its 15 electoral votes. let's take a look at other votes coming in right now. in virginia and ohio. first, virginia. 41% of the vote is in. mitt romney maintaining a lead, 54% to 45%. it just changed. still 54-45 but that's a significant lead of 1,500,000 votes have been counted. he's got a lead of 138,000 votes in virginia. 13 electoral votes at stake. look at ohio right now. 27%. that's a significant number, 27% of the vote in ohio are in right now. they have been counted. the president has an advantage, 55% to 44%, an advantage of about 180,000 votes in ohio. if he continues to hold ohio, that's very good news for the president because no republican has ever won the white house without ohio. we have some more votes coming

in, real votes right now. let's take a look at colorado. and new hampshire. first, colorado. early 9% of the vote is in but mitt romney maintains a lead, has a lead of 62% to 36%, an advantage of 60,000 votes. only 9% of the vote in colorado is in. nine electoral votes at stake in colorado. in new hampshire, 13%, 13% of the vote is in. the president has a lead, 56% to 43%. 12,841 lead, four electoral votes are there at stake in new hampshire. let's take a look, let's check in with some of our battleground reporters right now. we've got several who are watching what's going on. let's go to boulder, colorado. what are you seeing in colorado, because it's close there. >> reporter: well, this is what's happening here in boulder county. the republicans' strategy here

was we cannot get beat as badly as we did in 2008 when obama won 72% of the vote. republican strategists on the ground said the target for us is about 60%. we know we will lose the county but let's get that down to 60% so we can take the rest of the state. so far, out of boulder right now, president obama 38,080, that's 70%. so that's far ahead of that 60% number. romney, 15,299. so so far here in boulder county, again, this is expected to go heavy for obama but maybe at this point, going much more for obama than the republicans had hoped for here. >> colorado a key battleground state. let's check in with erin burnett in columbus, ohio, the state capital. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: the secretary of state has just been briefing reporters gathered here to try to figure out which way this swing state will go. right now, we are getting new numbers out of cuyahoga county. as you said, with the number we have reporting so far, we have

an 11 point lead for the president but that's just what we have reporting so far. we have a long way to go. there are some new numbers just coming out of cuyahoga county and cleveland, which is so crucial for the president, where mitt romney needs to close that margin. marty savidge has those numbers. what is the latest you're hearing? >> reporter: right now, the new numbers show that the president has 188,049 votes to mitt romney's 80,020 votes. that would indicate that president obama is actually increasing his lead here in cuyahoga county. i should also point out provisional ballots. there is a concern now that the number of them being used, especially in this county, may be on the rise. i was just talking to jayne planton, director of the county board of elections. there were two, maybe three precincts towards the end of the day that ran out of provisional ballots. they had to send more over there. there have been reports of them being used frequently. the problem we know if this race is close here in the state of ohio, those ballots could make all the difference. the problem, though, they aren't

counted for 11 days. when they come in, they will be handled by the people right behind me. >> reporter: all right. marty, of course, wolf, as we have heard, this again from sources, secretary of state's office told me earlier they would not be surprised to see provisional ballots in this state of anywhere between 200,000 and 250,000. again, if your margin is narrower than that, then those ballots could really matter here in ohio and as marty said, they don't start to be counted for another ten days. >> thanks very much. thanks to all of our reporters. john king, let's talk about florida a little bit right now. it's amazing how close it is. 78% of the vote is in. 50-50. look how close this is. we have 300 votes basically. >> that's called wow. that's what you call that in american politics. you watch the map starting to fill in, saying okay, we've got 78% of the vote, what's out. what's out. you see up here in the panhandle, couple very small counties. mitt romney will win these

counties. let's look at the neighbors. he's winning neighboring counties about 74%. we come over here and look over here. again, this county's out but it's a tiny percent of the population. roughly smaller than this county, running 58-41. romney will get some kind of advantage up here. it's not going to be mathematically significant. here's a big factor down here, though. in palm beach county, 95% of the vote's in. the president's not going to get too much more of a pad here. however, as you move to the south, only 24% of the vote in in broward county, that's t10% f the population statewide. the president will get a boost here if the numbers hold up. we don't know which precincts are out. there's a chance romney will close the gap but this is very democratic territory. so governor romney would get some votes but you would expect in this area the president will stretch a bit, add to his advantage. then you move to miami-dade, same thing here. it's a democratic area, only 15% of the vote in. it's a big chunk of the state population. so when you come back and look at 78% of the statewide vote in,

you're missing so many votes for miami-dade and missing so many votes from broward county, advantage to the president in terms of running up some of the margins there. however, however, you start hunting the map and you look for other places. 95% in here. the republican area. governor romney will pick up some, but lee county, about 3% here, governor romney will pick up some. not as big a population center. this is what you have to do at this time of night. you search the map for counties. governor romney likely to pad some here. again, not a major population center. i'm making my way up here on purpose. 100% in here, nothing to be gained. 100% in here, nothing to be gained. this is where you have to do some business. 85% of the vote in, the president leads at the moment. let's see what precincts are out here. >> let's take a look at pennsylvania. we know the republicans, we know romney made visits. they thought in the last few days maybe they had a shot there. >> only 8% of the vote in. you see what's happening so far. our exit polls suggest the president has a smaller lead than that, but that the president has the advantage. as you watch the map fill in,

the map is filling in at the moment as it's supposed to. one of the key questions is what do you get down here from philadelphia county and philadelphia city. 84%, only 36% of the vote. if the president runs up a big lead here, this is largely african-american turnout in center city philadelphia. you heard jessica yellin earlier saying they were happy about that. that was one of the concerns. early on people thought pennsylvania was over, romney makes a late play with voters here, get the message they needed to come and turn out. there's not a lot of early voting. no significant early voting so you have to do this on election day. that's a good number for the president out of center city, philadelphia. we need the suburban counties to fill in here. this is a huge contested area. if you go back in time, these have become, these used to be the republican counties outside of philadelphia. they have become democratic counties. george bush carried one of them, john kerry, same difference. as we watch this fill in, you have to say it's only 8%, but this is a democratic area, it's filling in blue. this is the republican area, again, much smaller from a population standpoint, filling in red.

governor romney was out in this part of the state today. at the moment, allegheny county coming in pretty strong, union voters here. if you look at the early map, let's count them but i would be -- you look for surprises. this is the -- among the deepest blue dna in presidential politics. i wouldn't look for it to change. >> let's go virginia right now, see where we stand. almost 50% of the vote is now in. romney continues to maintain a slight 51-47% advantage. >> he has. again, he's doing what he needs to do in terms of filling it in red. there's been some questions about you heard earlier, one of our correspondents down there, james carville across the room talking about this. this is not as big of an edge in chesterfield county just south of richmond. it's republican territory. go back in time. look at the 53% over there. go back in time, 54% for john mccain but much higher for george w. bush. when you need to run up margins, this is what you need in a republican county.

when you know northern virginia's a problem, you got to run it up and you don't see that here. however, if you come into richmond city, come up to this campaign, if you look into richmond city, 76-22%, so the president doing what he needs to do here. if you go back in time and match that up, that's about the same. the president is getting his vote in the inner city. that's down just a bit. if all of this plays out as it normally plays out, this election will be decided up here. at the moment, at the moment, that's only 10%. at the moment, governor romney is doing better on the percentages. that's fairfax, 54% to 45%. come over here, governor romney's doing a little bit better in the big population centers. he's doing a little better here. he's doing a lot better out here. we'll see. he's in play in virginia. we will be counting for awhile. >> we're not ready to make any projection in virginia right now. but we are ready to take a look at what's going on in the united states senate. anderson's back with that. >> we have another -- number of projections we can make. >> that's right. let's start with democratic

wins. debbie stabenow, cnn is projecting she will win another term. same with amy klobuchar. bob casey will win a second term. six years ago he beat rick santorum. at the end of the day, republicans tried to put a little money here, thought they could make a play for it, it didn't happen. new york, kirsten gilligrand going on to win her first term. >> there are a number of races we cannot project. >> before we get to that, let me give you the republican wins. there are a few of them. ted cruz has been elected a republican in texas to replace retiring senator kay bailey hutchison. in wyoming, barrasso is going on. you might see defeats al gore there, that's a different al gore. no relation. >> in terms of the races we cannot project. >> there are really some nail biters here. indiana, look at this. we talked about this being an

early bellwether about whether republicans can take the senate. 63% reporting, joe donnelly is just two percentage points ahead -- >> tightening. >> it is, 46,000 points, we're just watching that to see if republicans can hold on to that seat that is now held by richard luger. massachusetts, the key race of the year, scott brown has 48%. elizabeth warren, the democrat, is beating him by over 31,000 votes but only 23% reporting. virginia, look at this. this is so close. 51% to 49%. 46% reporting. again, just a reminder, this is the democratic seat that republicans really want to capture, george allen in particular wants his old seat back. he was defeated six years ago. >> so far does this affect the balance of power? >> it doesn't but look at what we have here. this is a good indicator of how close things are. 41 republican seats, 41 democratic seats.

again, we want to remind our viewers these purple seats here reflect the independent senators. bernie sanders from vermont caucuses with the democrats. the newly elected senator from maine, angus king, is here. we put him towards the middle. the white seats are the ones we don't have projections yet. again, nobody has the 51 needed for an outright majority in the senate. >> obviously we're watching the numbers in colorado very closely. let's go to you for that, wolf. >> let's take a look. we've got new numbers from colorado. 22% of the vote is now in in colorado. the president has an advantage, 53% to 45%. about 600,000 votes have been counted almost. 51,000 vote advantage for the president. nine electoral votes at stake in colorado. we're watching that state very, very closely. we'll see what happens. only 22% of the vote is in. we're also watching, get this, the top of the empire state building turned romney red and obama blue based on cnn's election results. we're about to figure in our

latest electoral vote projections. here it goes. there it is. stay right here to see the colored columns rise higher as each candidate gets more electoral votes on this, election night in america. [ woman ] are you there yet? yeah, i'm walking in right now. chilean granite... chilean granite... so, how's it in person? i should send you a picture. floor to ceiling bookshelves... floor to ceiling bookshelves... original windows... original windows... and this... is that a... fireplace face -- yes, yes it is. fireplace shaped like a face. i know right! [ male announcer ] only at&t's network lets you talk and surf at the same time

on your iphone 5. rethink possible. on your iphone 5. take the steps to reach yours, everyowith usgoals. with real advice, for real goals. the us bank wealth management advisor can help you. every step of the way. from big steps, to little steps. since 1863 we've helped guide our clients, so they can take the steps to help grow, preserve, and pass along their wealth. so their footsteps can help the next generation find their own path. all of us serving you. us bank your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes.

[ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

live picture from los angeles. grant park in los angeles, another watch party. they're watching cnn. they're watching this important election night in america. let's show you what we know right now. the electoral college map, we'll put it on the screen. first, right now on the race to 270, that's the number you need to be elected president of the united states, mitt romney has 152 electoral college votes. that's based on our projected estimates right now. our projections. the president of the united

states has 123 electoral college votes. the yellow states, those are states where we have not been able to make projections. the red states are romney states. the blue states clearly obama states. let's take a look at some votes, real votes, where they stand right now in states where we have not yet been able to make projections. let's begin in virginia, where almost half the vote is in. mitt romney maintains a lead, 51% to 47%. 80,000 vote advantage. take a look at that. just moved up a little bit. in north carolina,15 electoral votes, 51% for mitt romney, 48% for the president. 73% of the vote is in. in ohio, more than a third of the vote is now in. the president maintaining his advantage, 53% to 46%, just changed a little bit. he's got 162,000 vote advantage over mitt romney right now. in florida, look at this. look at this. seven million votes have been counted and mitt romney has an

advantage of 636 votes. 81% of the vote is in. it's 50-50. is this a repeat of 2000, when al gore lost florida by 537 votes to george w. bush? right now, 636 votes. mitt romney is ahead of president obama with 81% of the vote in florida. we thought it was going to be close. i got to tell you, i didn't think it would be this close but it is close. still 19% of the vote outstanding. that's florida. let's move on from florida right now to missouri. missouri has ten electoral votes. mitt romney has an advantage right now with only 4% of the vote counted. 53% to 45%. wisconsin also very, very early, only 1% of the vote is in. mitt romney has an advantage 57% to 42%. in colorado, a third of the vote is in. the president has an advantage, 52% to 46%. an advantage of 57,000 votes as of right now.

33% of the votes in. 22% of the vote is in in new mexico. the president has an advantage there, 55% to 41%. five electoral votes in new mexico. the president leads by 25,000 votes. but the story right now, john, got to be florida, florida, florida. can you believe what's going on in florida? >> 600 votes. one quick point on the electoral college map. only one take-away so far. only indiana taking away from what barack obama won four years ago. we need to look, that's not enough for governor romney. he has to take away some others. florida, let's pull it up at the moment. you look at the map. the president has actually pulled ahead in this math up here, again by less than 1,000 votes. as you watch it fill in, we're at 81% of the vote. to our viewers at home, sometimes to feed into this wall, it's slower or faster than the feed into that wall but we're in the ballpark. now let's watch and see what's out. when you're inside 1,000 votes, you are looking to see what's

out. 95% in in palm beach county. governor romney running a little better than john mccain for years ago but you can expect the president to add a few votes. 57% in broward county, this is significant. remember awhile ago it was less than that. the president running ahead here. want to double-check '08. the president at 69% in '08. the president is overperforming his numbers of four years ago. we drop down to miami-dade, notoriously slow reporting at 40% right now. 62-38. when you look at the vote still out here, the president is going to add to his vote totals a bit. out here we have a whole county with no votes in, very tiny county. romney will carry this county. i'll bet the ranch on that. the question is, not a lot of votes. if it could be somewhere in that ballpark and he could have 20,000 votes, then we do the math but look at that. wow. it is just wow. i have been e-mailing with people in the romney campaign. they say they are confident,

their people on the ground say they will pull this out but people in the obama campaign say the same. let's move over to colorado. if romney can win florida, he needs virginia, he needs ohio, and then he needs something else. if he doesn't get ohio, he has to make it up somewhere. if you come here, 51% to 48%, the president is winning at the moment. this is critical jefferson county. governor romney is holding his own in the suburbs. >> i want to just go to kyung lah on the scene for us. what are you seeing? >> reporter: arapahoe county very important for the president. he won it in 2008. it's very much seen as a bellwether. with me is the county clerk. tell me how the numbers are looking right now. >> barack obama, 107,005. romney, 93,580. 62.3% -- or .28%.

>> reporter: president obama leading over governor romney. thank you. so the reason why we're paying attention, arapahoe and jefferson county, two key swing counties in this key swing state. right now, the president appears to have a slight advantage in both. >> colorado's an important state. i think some people thought it could be a decisive potentially important state. >> it could be. could be. when the race is so close, any one of the smaller battlegrounds could be decisive. kyung just said the president has an advantage. he is winning, 63% of the vote in. the president is winning 53-47. you say that's good. but you have to go back in time, it was 56% last time. this is an area the president needs to run up the margin. he's underperforming 2008. let's come to jefferson county. he was at 54% there in 2008. he's at 51% right now. the underperforming matters if governor romney, look what's

missing. look what's missing. this is conservative country. what will the margins be in here? we go back even further, look here, a lot of this is red down here. if governor romney can run up the totals here and here, where he's winning 61%, that's what keeps this state in play. as you pull it out now, 51-48, still in play when you look at so much conservative territory yet to be counted. >> still going to be very, very close in colorado. what about new hampshire? four electoral votes but they could be decisive as well. >> another tiny one. again, this is a state if you go back in time, lot of it's still out. only 16% of the vote in. everything up here, you see a little blue, little red. not a lot of people live up here. this is the capital of concord here. little more than 3%. that's what you expect the president to do there, 90% of the vote is here in a democratic area. the president doesn't have too much more to add to the cushion here. what's out? this is the biggest piece that's out. nashua -- >> funny you mention that. hold that thought. brian todd is there right now. what are you seeing, brian?

>> reporter: a tightening race here. they're still counting absentee ballots and other hand-counted ballots behind me in precinct three. that's the moderator, skip barrett, right there, the gentleman sitting with the blue blazer, sitting there counting absentee ballots with his aides. other hand-counted ballots going on to the left there. they're counting other hand-counted ballots, then they will post those results in addition to the results from that tabulator on to a tape. we'll be the first to know the results of this precinct three. right now in hillsborough county, a very much tightening race here with about 10% of the vote in. president obama has a lead of only about 200 votes. latest numbers in hillsborough county, 9,596 for the president. 9,385 for mitt romney. tightening race in hillsborough county. the president also has a slight lead in merrimac county. president looking good but not by too much here.

>> you and i know new hampshire quite well. we go there a lot every four years or so. what do you make -- >> as brian just said, he just said -- this hasn't filled in for us. he's getting results on the scene. the president is leading but not by much. this is 56-43 territory in this part of the state last time so the president has to win down here. not by much means a key state looking forward but pull it up here, where does governor romney need to win? manchester, big population center. this is tough. remember in the new hampshire primary in 2008, this is where hillary clinton came back and beat barack obama. early on it looked like barack obama would win the new hampshire primary. this was clinton territory. blue collar democrats. pretty close right now, 25% of the vote in. the president with a 51-48% lead. we want back and take a look. 55% in this county four years ago. as this starts to come in, we will wait for more. that's four years ago. let me come forward. we are very early on in the state of new hampshire but again, in some of the key places the president is underperforming

a little bit. that means it will be closer. the question is, is it enough for governor romney to get over the top. >> thank you. our battleground reporters are standing by in florida, the squeaker contest right now. we will have a live update coming up. and we are counting down to the top of the hour, when polls will close in the swing states of iowa and nevada. right now, in the las vegas strip, folks are watching the results on cnn. [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time,

and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see,

you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. how did i get here? dumb luck? or good decisions? ones i've made. ones we've all made. about marriage. children. money. about tomorrow. here's to good decisions. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. [ male announcer ] the way it moves. the way it cleans. everything about the oral-b power brush is simply revolutionary. oral-b power brushes oscillate, rotate and even pulsate

to gently loosen and break up that sticky plaque with more brush movements than manual brushes and even up to 50% more than leading sonic technology brushes for a superior clean. oral-b power brushes. go to oralb.com for the latest offers. another major, major projection. cnn now projects pennsylvania will be won by the president of

the united states. pennsylvania has 20 electoral votes, more than a quarter of the vote, the actual vote, is in. look at this. the president has 60% to mitt romney's 39%. that's an advantage of more than 329,000 votes. we project that pennsylvania, a state that mitt romney visited today, he was in pittsburgh, will go to the president of the united states. they're watching cnn over at obama headquarters in chicago right now. jessica yellin is on the scene for us. go ahead, jessica. they must be pretty excited about pennsylvania. >> reporter: well, this is thrilling for them, obviously, because this was a state the president was determined to hold where mitt romney made a late push to take it away from the president. for them, this is a sign that their campaign is on track to do what they planned to do. there is also something telling in these numbers. according to the sources, the

senior campaign officials i have been talking to throughout the day, part of the reason they did well in pennsylvania is because of the high turnout by african-american voters and that is a pattern they said they've seen in a number of states today, and if that holds, it will be a story of this election. they said to date they see that the african-american turnout in pennsylvania, around philadelphia, in their evidence, exceeded what it was in 2008. it's a changing electorate and it could say something about what the president should be doing in a second term if he gets one. that will be all something we would discuss if that happens. and another point i would make, david axelrod, the president's senior advisor, bet if they lost minnesota, michigan and pennsylvania, he would shave his mustache. looks for now his mustache is intact. >> mustache will be there. he's headed for 40 years, he may have it a little longer. we'll see. let's take a look at where we stand on the road to 270

electoral votes needed to be president of the united states. mitt romney maintains a slight advantage right now over the president, 152 for mitt romney, 143, we added in pennsylvania, for the president of the united states. it's very, very close. the contest on the road to 270. you see the yellow states, those are states we have not yet been able to make projections on. let's take a look at some votes in some of those states where we have not made projections yet. here's where we go. let's go to missouri right now. ten electoral votes at stake. romney has a lead, 55% to 43%. only 10% of the vote is in. ten electoral votes at stake. no projection in missouri yet. similarly in wisconsin. mitt romney right now with only 6% of the vote in. mitt romney has a slight advantage, 56% to 43% but it's very, very early in wisconsin. paul ryan's home state. in colorado, half the vote is now almost in. the president has 51% to mitt romney's 47%. he's got a 46,000 vote advantage in colorado.

in new mexico, 23%, almost a quarter of the vote is in. the president has an advantage of 54% to 42%. 23,471 vote advantage for the president in new mexico. five electoral votes at stake. let's go to virginia right now. in virginia, 57% of the vote is in. mitt romney continues to maintain a slight advantage, 51% to 47%. almost 100,000 vote advantage in virginia. for mitt romney right now. in north carolina, mitt romney also has an advantage, 78% of the vote is in. 51% for romney, 48% for the president. in ohio, look how close it is. 42% of the vote is in. 52% for the president, 47% for mitt romney. 42% of the vote is in, as i said. an advantage for the president. in florida, it's close, very, very close. right now with 84% of the vote in, the president has built up a little bit bigger of a cushion.

he's got 50% to romney's 49%. almost 20,000 votes advantage. a little while ago it was about 500 votes that separated these two candidates. now the president has almost 20,000 vote advantage. let's check in with anderson and dana for another projection in the u.s. senate. >> a major projection in the race for the senate. >> we have two big projections, two pieces of bad news for republicans. let's take a look. in the state of massachusetts, cnn is projecting that the democratic candidate elizabeth warren has unseated the republican incumbent, scott brown. this was a very hard-fought race. everybody remembers when scott brown had a surprise win a few years ago to replace ted kennedy. that really messed things up in washington with regard to the health care debate and he has now lost this race to elizabeth warren. indiana, another big upset for republicans. a huge upset, really. because joe donnelly, the moderate democrat who is now in the house, he will move over to the senate. cnn is projecting he has won

that seat. he beat the republican candidate, richard mourdock. you remember richard mourdock beat the incumbent republican, richard lugar, who has been in the senate for three decades. there was no way he was going to lose the seat but when he lost the primary, richard mourdock was in the general election and made a big blunder a few weeks ago when he said pregnancy resulting from rape was a gift from god and he plummeted in the polls. huge wins for democrats. very bad news for republicans. it is not impossible but virtually impossible at this point for republicans to take back the senate. >> are we looking now at no-calls? >> really one no-call. this is a very important race. this is a potential piece of good news although we have to be very cautious because close to 60% reporting. at this point, george allen, the republican candidate, is a little more than 35,000 votes ahead of tim kaine. this is a democratic seat right now. this could potentially be one republican pickup but look how close it is. >> it would be good news for

republicans. >> they would need a lot of good news to make it the ultimate good news. >> the balance of power? >> let's take a look at that now. right now, republicans have 41 seats. you see they're being filled in more, particularly on the blue side, the democratic side. 43 democratic seats plus two independents -- maybe we should say one independent, bernie sanders caucuses with the democrats. we have the newly elected senator from maine, angus king more towards the middle. he's said he is an independent, he will not say where he will caucus until he comes down here. nobody thinks he will actually caucus with republicans because they spent about $3 million to try to defeat him. but nobody has the 51 for an outright majority so far but we still have a lot of really, really close races we're watching. >> good news for democrats in the senate race there for those two races we just told you about. wolf, john? >> yeah. the balance of power in the senate will be interesting to see what happens in indiana. bet a lot of republicans wish

richard lugar would have gotten that republican nomination, probably would have had a much better chance of maintaining the republican seat. >> you are channeling your inner mitch mcconnell. indiana, i just mentioned the big senate pickup for the democrats, that's the only pickup for mitt romney so far in the electoral college. we show mitt romney ahead at the moment but he has to have more take-aways than just indiana and its 11. let's play hypothetical here. we're pretty confident about this. we will wait for the votes to come in but the west coast states have been reliably democratic for a long time. let's give them to the president, which would put him to 217. >> don't forget hawaii. >> hawaii as well. let's do it right down here. okay. there we go. nope. got to make it blue. we can do that. alaska, we think that will go red, right? we think if you come out in the prairie, do idaho, montana, let's not touch colorado. let's do arizona. for the sake of argument, we do this. we think that will go that way. now we're back to the battleground states. i'm doing this on purpose for a reason, to see governor romney has only picked up this. as we come this way now, if these go as we think they will

go, what happens? can he get there? which is why this is so important. because when you start to think through these states, even if north carolina where he's leadingstates, north carolina, n if virginia, where he's leading at the moment stays that way. 226/217. traditionally a blue state. if they prove us wrong, they prove us wrong. obama campaign very confident about this. we'll watch the ten right here. when you get into the kind of map. latino votes, let's assume that goes way thaw way, you're in a position where he can't win without this and without this. and so when you come back to the map here, look, unless something jarring happens tonight this is a state where governor romney is just behind, just behind. close, in play, but, wolf, 84% of the vote out, the question, what's missing? what's missing is a bit of the vote here in broward county, a good chunk of the vote in miami-dade county and looking at 84% state wide and missing so much of the vote in miami-dade

and a decent chunk in broward county, guess what? most of the vote you're missing is in big, democratic areas, you look at it now and we'll count it as they come in. history tells you this say number, as close as it is. with 84% in, that favors the president. >> at least right now. we'll see what happens. those three counties in south florida usually heavily democratic. >> we can go back in time and watch them. '08, '04, '00, '96, history repeat itself. >> almost the top of the hour. means more presidential election results. counting down the results in iowa. people watching vote tallies coming in in downtown chicago. we'll be right back.

if we want to improve our schools... ... what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. when the doctor told me that i could smoke for the first week... i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems,

which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. it helps to have people around you... they say, you're much bigger than this. and you are. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. introducing the new 13-inch macbook pro, and you are. ♪ with the stunning retina display. ♪ for the pro in all of us.

we're live in boston. gn we get closer to another important round of results. back here at the cnn election center. i'm wolf blitzer. counting down to poll closing in four more states. the battleground state of iowa, montana, and nevada, and another swing state, and finally, utah. together, those states have another 21 electoral votes,

every vote i believe is vital to getting to the winning total of 270. both presidential campaigns are prepared for a long night. let's check in with jessie yellin and candy crowley. jessica, first to you,n over th? >> hi, wolf. the energy picked up as we made projections. still a long night ahead. they are excited. iowa and nevada, two battleground states that the obama campaign felt good about. nevada, the latino vote and their work organizing there. harry reid has a great organization. iowa, 18 points ahead, obama campaign was in the early vote heading into today, wolf. >> let's go to boston. candy, what's it like over there? >> well, they are still waiting, i have to tell you, a number of people are showing up, either, you know, via skooip or on the stage to talk to folks here.

we heard from rob portman, almost the wingman for mitt romney through ohio, said he was feeling pretty good. we heard from ed gillespie who came out to the podium who came out to the podium and said, hey, we feel confident and optimistic, the senior adviser to mitt romney, a long history of political experience. so in public, obviously, they are still optimistic and confident. it has to be nerve-wracking behind closed doors. >> sure it is nerve-wracking for both campaigns. let's go to anderson. >> we were watching numbers very closely. keeping an eye on the clock for next round of poll closings, including for iowa and nevada. eight of the last 11 elections went for president obama let's go to poppy harlow in des moines, iowa. >> anderson, polls about to close here. we're in polk

biggest county in iowa. the turnout is so huge. some of the counties have run out of ballots, photo copying ballots, those all have to be hand counted. we might have to wait longer for the final count in the battleground state. >> miguel marquez in las vegas. >> this is clark county, exactly where all of the votes will be counted here. in a few minutes, the polls will close, and the first ballots, 700,000 early and absentee ballots will be reported. but they will not be reported until the secretary of state confirms all voters have voted in the state. it could be a while, anderson. >> we're watching every state in every vote. let's go to john king and the magic wall. >> you list nevada and iowa, we can quinn twin the vote. in iowa, born-again christians critical to the romney

constituency. nearly four in ten voters describe themselves as evein gel call christians. and a slight advantage for the president in the state of iowa. 49% to 46%. some of the states not having as rough of a time as the rest of the country. nevada, 65% of the electorate is white. but 18% of the electorate latinos, up from 15% four years ago, a growing dynamic, growing diversity. helps president obama. a long-term problems for the republican party and more of this as we go across the country. essentially an even divide. slightly more democrats than republicans and a third of the state describing themselves as independents. when you ask both candidates because of the latino vote, even republicans, they assume will go blue. iowa could be much more contested battle